Gerry House
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Gerry House is a Country Music Association (CMA) and Academy Of Country Music (ACM) award-winning radio personality, currently heard on WSIX-FM in Nashville on the breakfast show Gerry House and the House Foundation.
House is also a hit songwriter, who has penned major hits for George Strait ("The Big One"), Reba McEntire ("Little Rock"), LeAnn Rimes ("On the Side of Angels") and Pam Tillis ("The River and the Highway"). He has also had his songs recorded by Brad Paisley, Randy Travis, Trace Adkins, Mark Collie, Collin Raye, Neal McCoy and The Oak Ridge Boys, among others.
He was born in Independence, Kentucky, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, on March 28, 1948 to Lucille and Homer House. His mother (who died in 1997) was a homemaker and his father (who died in 1989) was an electrician. As well as Gerry, Homer and Lucille raised a daughter who was 13 years Gerry's senior.
House met his future wife, Allyson Faulkner, at elementary school in Walton, Kentucky. House was 3 years her senior. They got married in 1974 and had one daughter, Autumn, who has followed her father's footsteps into music, and now works at Capitol Records in Nashville after working as a song plugger for Reba McEntire's company and Madonna's Maverick Records.
Before moving to Nashville, House worked in Ithaca, New York and Jacksonville, Florida. He first joined WSIX-AM in 1975. House had also begun to do stand-up comedy and was writing songs.
In the early 1980s, WSIX-FM, a pioneer country music-formatted FM outlet, became the market's leading country station, and the station appointed House to host a new morning show. Al Voecks had presented a talk show on the AM station, and he soon became House's newsman. Duncan Stewart came to Nashville from Boston in 1983, through a friendship with the music director at WSIX, and he joined the cast as House's sports reporter. Completing the cast was Paul Randall, who began as a traffic reporter and eventually became House's co-presenter or "sidekick." While Voecks and Stewart appeared every half hour to do news and sports, Randall remained for the whole show and played off House's humorous routines.
The House Foundation was split up in 1985 when House left for WSIX's competitors, WSM-FM, citing politics within WSIX's ownership as the reason. House was hired by KLAC in Los Angeles after winning an award for best radio presenter in a major market for the Country Music Association. House began writing for the television show Roseanne around this time, and he also developed the character of Maurice, a black sports newcaster, who voiced spots during Los Angeles Lakers games.
House disliked the culture at KLAC and wanted to be back in Music City with his friends. WSIX's new owner, Steve Hicks, soon offered House his former job back and even agreed to a complete House Foundation reunion that would see House return to the air with Voecks, Stewart and Randall, all in their original roles. Devon O'Day also joined the show as producer and for a country music news segment at 9.45 called Twang Talk.
House earned a record deal with MCA Records and released two country/comedy albums, The Cheater's Telethon in 1990 and Bull in 1992. The albums were released internationally.
House also hosted several nationally syndicated radio shows, including Countryline USA, America's Number Ones and The Saturday Night House Party.
Tragedy would strike when Randall became very ill. Mike Bohan joined the show in 1995, after 20 years at WSM radio and WSMV television. Randall succumbed to his illness in 1998; Bohan continues with the show, while Richard Falklen now directs the show and hosts the news segment once named Twang Talk. Falklen's "disembodied voice," as House calls it, can often be heard during the show whenever he adds input; Falklen's voice appears intact for his news segment, however.
After the show concludes for the day, House operates a music publishing company, House Notes, which owns the songs he has written. Some of his writing partners over the years have included O'Day, Gary Burr and Don Schlitz, who have all had number-one hits with House. In addition, House records the "Maurice" (a character he bought from Los Angeles) segments for his show in the House Notes studio, as well as voices such as "Makk Truck" and "Homer."
House has contributed to Nick Barraclough's BBC Radio 2 country show offering 'news from Nashville'. He also hosted Radio 2's coverage of the Country Music Association Awards with Barraclough in 2004.
House lives with his wife Allyson, and his neighbours include LeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban, Phil Vassar and Gary Levox & Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. House also has his much-talked-about "palace" in Pegram, Tennessee.
On August 15, 2003, House was hospitalized after complaining of a severe headache. He was diagnosed with a bleeding artery and underwent surgery to repair it and underwent further surgery to relieve fluid and swelling on his brain. He made a full recovery.
Contents |
[edit] Discography
[edit] Notable recordings of House songs
- "The Big One" (George Strait)
- "Little Rock" (Reba McEntire)
- "On the Side of Angels" (LeAnn Rimes)
- "The River and the Highway" (Pam Tillis)
- "Thirteen Mile Goodbye" (Randy Travis)
- "Nothing But Taillights" (Trace Adkins)
- "Three Words, Two Hearts, One Night" (Mark Collie)
[edit] Albums
- 1990 The Cheater's Telethon
- 1992 Bull
